


Day 1: Ancient

by orphan_account



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Promptober 2019, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, cat fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2020-11-22 08:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20871077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sammy accidentally adopts a cat.Too bad it's no regular cat.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This won't make as much since with the prompt until pt. 2 is posted but by my own rules I needed to post what I had today. )

Sammy did not want or need a cat. He could barely take care of himself right now, there was no need to drag an animal into this mess. A cat was out of the question.

Did that stop him from accidentally adopting the stray that started appearing on his and Ben’s back porch? No.

Things had started simple. A staring contest over his late-night bowl of cereal had ended in him leaving out water for the gray cat because Sammy could admit he was a soft touch. Leaving out the bowl with water was the least he could do without actively luring the cat to their house.

Simple. Not a slippery slope at all.

Even Sammy knew he’d put cat food on their next grocery list. So what if he was weak to taking care of small things that needed him? Ben certainly didn’t seem to mind.

0.

Three weeks later, the cat sauntered into their apartment and never leaves.

2.

Ben, for his part, had yet to actually see the cat. Sammy was his only source of information on its existence. Apparently it was a grey short hair and that is now wouldn’t leave the house now.  
The food kept disappearing and the water bowl needed regular changing so there was almost definitely a real cat somewhere in the apartment. It just didn’t want to be seen by anyone but Sammy. 

It didn’t even have a name yet, they just called it “the cat” because Sammy didn’t want to “name it without its consent.” His best friend was a goddamn lunatic. 

Troy had come over with a load of catnip in an effort to lure the cat out of hiding. It had snubbed him without so much as a sound. 

Ben was not going to begrudge the cat’s apparition-esque nature though. Not when it was doing Sammy so much good. He was getting up at a normal hour to feed the cat and going out buying toys from the store down the street. When Ben would come back from visiting his mom or seeing Emily, Sammy would be up and dressed in the living room. 

It was good, that Sammy had something worth getting up for that wasn’t just Ben. Don’t get him wrong, he loved having Sammy around constantly. A live-in best friend was the best thing ever, but sharing some of that pure cut dad energy with another being was nice. 

The cat, wherever it was hiding, could stay.

4.

One night, about a month after the cat had come into the house, Sammy woke up to the feeling of a warm ball on his chest. It was small and light but grounding in a way that Sammy had needed. The cat was curled tight against his ribs, purring so hard a motor would be jealous even as it lifted its head to meet his eyes and blink slowly. 

Sammy knew what that meant. He’d spent days trying to learn everything he could about cats after acquiring their latest roommate. He wouldn’t take that trust lightly.

“Hello,” Sammy couldn’t help but croon as he spoke to the small creature, “may I pet you?”

The sentience in the cat's eyes as it considered the question was a lot but maybe cats always seemed to understand intentions that well. He’d heard some of them could be quite intelligent so maybe it was just reading his body language or something. He placed his hand up to let the cat decide on whether it wanted this to be a one-sided interaction or not. 

The cat bumped its head against his hand and Sammy slowly let his fingers start to pet its head. 

This was a good step. They needed to get it to a vet for a health check and letting him pet it was a great first step to establishing enough trust to properly care for it. 

He would need a name for it. That might be a good next step.

“I guess we should figure out what I’m going to call you. How do you like… Cooper?”

The baleful look he received was quite enough of a rejection.

“Uh…. Mulder?”

The cat rolled sprawling out to bat at his hand that had been petting... Her. Good to know. Thank you google for help identifying that. 

“How about… Scully?”

An uninterest flick of the tail was better than outright rejection but not quite what he was looking for. He’d have to do better than that. So maybe he should stop trying to think of what Jack would name a cat. 

“Ghost?”

Her ears perked in unmistakable interest. Oh, he couldn’t wait for Ben to hear this one.

“Ghost it is then, ma’dam.”

Ghost tucked herself back against his ribs and started to purr harder.

6.

Ghost, as Sammy had named her because he’s a little shit, had remained elusive to Ben for weeks. He’d barely caught glances of shedding fur because Sammy’s resurgence of energy had him cleaning more and more because it cleared his head.

In the sixth week, however, he comes home from a date with Emily to find Sammy asleep on the couch with Ghost curled up on his chest. She’s staring at him with the intensity only a predator animal can achieve. Eyes picking apart his entire existence with a mere glance to deem whether he was worthy of even being stepped on. 

She must not have seen anything too distasteful. Though she kept an eye on him, she also stayed curled against Sammy’s chest and the purring didn’t die down. He was someone to be watched but not enough to abandon who she had clearly decided to be her person.

Ben could take his wins when they came. He was just glad Sammy had someone else to be there for her 

7.

The first time Sammy woke up from a nightmare to his cat attempting to suffocate his face with love, he almost threw her in panic. Thankfully, his arms were too tangled up in the sheets to succeed and she moved off his face as he shouted. She settled next to him on the pillow, waiting patiently for him to recover from the fright and he knew she’d been trying to help him.

He'd never been so grateful to be almost smothered to death in his life.

12.

The first inkling that Ben had of Ghost being anything other than a perfectly normal cat was in the studio. Sammy had taken to bringing her into the studio with Ben’s encouragement and she was delightfully docile about the whole thing. She laid splayed out in Sammy’s lap or on the desk in front of him, silent as he stroked her fur, through every show with little complaint. 

They’d even gotten the local vet in to do a talk about the importance of regular health checks and get her to do a spot check on Ghost, for which Sammy was deeply grateful. Her shots were now up to date though she’d needed a great number of bribes to grant forgiveness for their betrayal. She’d only come out of hiding to get them because she was apparently as weak to Sammy as he was to her. It said a lot about both of them.

It was a little odd that she never had to potty while they were on air but not unusual enough to warrant confusion and her apparent ability to disappear at the drop of a hat was not uncharacteristic of a cat. The vet declared her happy, healthy, and perfectly normal.

What started to send up red flags in Ben’s mind was the call from the Freddie Osbourne. Freddie had just started to get aggressive about refuting the rumors about werewolf attacks happening due to a blood moon when Ghost had hissed. 

The change was instant. Freddie went quiet mid-word, silence reigning in place of the rant he’d been mid-stride in. Sammy’s hand came up to stroke her fur and try to lower her hackles. 

It was odd, but Freddie’s response was what confused him. His shaking voice came down the phone, “Was- was that- was that a-,” before abruptly cutting when Ghost growled. The line went dead, the sudden sound of the dial tone jolting Ben in shock. Freddie had sounded afraid when he heard Ghost.

The hell could a cat do to scare an honest to god werewolf so bad he sounded like he pissed himself?

Ben watched Ghost rub her head against Sammy’s chin and wondered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta Read by Grammarly.com  
Thank you Grammarly for your good software haha
> 
> You can find my prompt sheet here: https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/854695


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 if Sammy gets a Cat Prompt.

15.

Lily moves in with them in February. She does not like the Ghost, because of her association with Sammy, but Ghost is mostly ambivalent to Lily. She only seems upset by the woman’s presence when Lily and Sammy get into spats. Not minor ones, but the ones they sometimes get into where they really aim for each other’s wounds. Lily and Sammy know too much about each other to not hit where it hurts when they aim to. 

Ghost has taken to getting between them when these happen, pressing herself into Sammy until he shakes out of the combative mindset Lily is so good at invoking in him. 

She’s a godsend in those first few weeks, when Sammy is having trouble with being in such close proximity to another person who knew Jack, who could use Jack against him. 

Ghost doesn’t care about his missing fiance, or how broken he is about being unable to save someone he loves so dearly. She just wants to be close and warm and fed and there’s no love easier for someone in a dark place to accept than cupboard love. He’d done his research on the subject before, back when he was trying to find ways to ground Jack to reality. 

Pets were good like that. Their love uncomplicated and giving, a basis of cupboard love forming solid foundations of companionship. Perfect for a sad sack like Sammy who believed himself to be unworthy of love. There was no arguing with an animal that wanted to love you, they didn’t speak human languages you see, and so couldn’t be reasoned with. You might as well just give in and accept their affection.

Ghost, in particular, was difficult to argue with because she wasn’t affectionate with just anybody. In fact, she didn’t seem to like literally anyone but Sammy. She tolerated Ben and Lily was half convinced that she simply didn’t exist when Sammy wasn’t around because she simply could not be seen anywhere but by Sammy’s side or in his arms. Not one of their visitors had ever seen her in the flesh, though Sammy had finally gotten a picture of her that wasn’t incredibly blurry to prove she existed. 

It was his phone background.

XX.

The last place Sammy expected to find his cat was in the Perdition woods during their standoff with the Shadowmaker. It made absolutely no sense to see the little grey streak shoot towards the horrifying mass of shadows that tauntingly holding Jack out, whispering for Sammy to join him. 

What made less sense was the way the blob wheeled away from Ghost as though she was the most terrifying thing there.

She hissed at the Shadowmaker as she stalked forward, the shadowed being dropping Jack to the ground in it’s rush to retreat. Ghost pounced forward and caught the edges of shadow with her paws causing the Shadowmaker to cry out in honest terror as her claws  _ sunk in _ . 

There was no way to describe the next moment, except to say that Ghost  _ ate _ the shadowy creature. She then primly licked her paws clean of lingering shadows and precisely turned around to start sauntering towards Sammy, all pride and feline grace.

Sammy could distantly hear Ben retching into the bushes he’d been using for cover as Lily tried extremely carefully not to move and Emily stared in terror as the Apparently Not A Cat approached Sammy sedately. Sammy was also staring at his Apparently Not A Cat, looked up at him and quietly meowed to be picked up, just as she had every morning since she first allowed him to touch her however long ago she wormed her way into his life. 

And really, what else was he supposed to do but pick her up and whisper how good she was?

So his cat wasn’t precisely a cat, it was King Falls for god’s sake, of course she wasn’t.

XX+1.

Jack was unsure of Sammy’s new fluffy companion. 

For one, he wasn’t sure why everyone else seemed to be so scared of her. She wasn’t particularly mean or aggressive. So far Jack had mostly only seen her sprawled out across Sammy on the couch or in his arms as he went about his morning, helpfully climbing up to perch on his shoulders when asked so Sammy could use his hands. Sure, she didn’t seem to like anyone other than Sammy but really she was just completely apathetic to the rest of them.

So why did everyone keep a wary eye on her?

The answer, as it turned out, came from Sammy during a conversation on a bad night.

Jack had whispered, “I can’t get it out of my head that he’s going to come back for me,” into Sammy’s shoulder. The covers on their bed both making him feel secure and yet unable to escape.Imaginary shadows flashing behind his eyes and panic tightening his fingers to bruising Sammy’s arm even as he tried to loosen them. 

“Well, I can promise you that won’t happen. I don’t think he’s going to be coming back from Ghost eating him.”

Nothing jolts you out of panic like the buckwild concept of your fiance’s cat eating the eldritch horror that held you hostage for years.

“Excuse me?”

Sammy’s incomprehension of Jack's own confusion lasted only a moment before the question apparently registered and he replied, “Oh right, we never got to tell you. So… uh, Ghost isn’t exactly a regular cat? She kind of ate the Shadowmaker that night. That’s how we got away.”

_ Ate the _ -

Jack found himself staring down at the small ball of fluff tucked into Sammy’s other side. 

Her head popped up to stare back at him, lazy eyes boring into him. He saw her lean just a little more into Sammy’s tense side. She couldn’t possibly be worried about herself, she ate the shadowmaker. So she was worried about… Sammy? 

It would make sense, she clearly and unabashedly loved Sammy, no matter what she was. She hadn’t just suddenly gone out and decided to eat the shadowmaker out of nowhere either. She only did that when Sammy was directly in it’s path. 

“I can’t believe you convinced some powerful, ancient creature of King Falls to be your cat while I was away. We promised we’d always do cool things together, Stevens.”

As Sammy laughed, Ghost slowly blinked at Jack and well, Jack knew enough to understand that message.

The next morning, when Jack leaned over and gave Ghost a little chin scritch of appreciation, Ben spilled cereal down his front in outrage at the blatant favoritism.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Memory of Kaiser   
3.11.08 - 11.14.19
> 
> You were the best dog we could have had growing up, old man. I hope you're at peace but we'll never stop missing you.
> 
> Give your pets a hug from me. They deserve every single one of them.


End file.
